WoW Twink Guide: 29 Hunter

Hunters are an interesting class to try to twink because of the balance that is required to play one successfully.  Hunters need large amounts of mana for all their special shots and can do massive amounts of damage.  But on the flip side, because they are doing so much damage and killing so many players they will become prime targets, so they need large amounts of health too.  So we’re going to try to pick the best gear and enchants to optimize both.  Kiting players is a hunters bread and butter but you have to account for the inevitable – players will eventually get to you. 

So our target stats to improve for our level 20-29 bracket Hunter twink are stamina, intellect and agility primarily with agility being secondary to the first two.  We’ll get it where we can for crit chance but we need lots of health to survive and tons of mana to be able to kite effectively.

Let’s get started, we’re going to list the equipment you’ll need to get a good balance in both your health and mana pools as well as what enchantments to put on each item.

Head:  [item]15339en[/item] of the Monkey

A bind on equip green item that can be commonly found on the auction house.  Because it has a level 29 requirement and many people realize it’s a twink desired item it may come at a higher than normal price but you should be able to find a good deal on it.

Armor: 81
Agility: 8
Stamina: 9
Enchant: +100 health Libram

Neck:  Sentinel’s Medallion  

A PVP reward item – very easy to obtain this through doing the Warsong Gulch battleground you’re gearing up for anyway.  This requires level 28 to wear.

Agility: 8
Stamina: 5

Shoulders:  [item]15140en[/item] of the Monkey

Another green, level 29 bind on equip item you’ll be able to dig up on the auction house.  As with the Hat, expect to pay a little more because of this being a saught after item.  Try to find the 7/7 stat version.

Armor:  75
Agility:  6 or 7 depending on random enchant
Stamina:  6 or 7 depending on random enchant

Back:  [item]10518en[/item] 

A green player made cloak.  It’ll be available on the auction house, however you’ll need to be a level 225 engineer to use it.  Engineers are handy for twinks anyway so go for it.  It also has a use ability, reducing your fall speed for 10 seconds.

Armor:  30
Agility:  8
Enchant:  +12 Agility

Chest:  [item]4119en[/item] 

This is a quest reward for doing the Raptor Mastery quest line in Stranglethorn Vale.  This requires level 28 to wear.

Armor:  117
Strength:  4
Agility:  3
Stamina:  16
Enchant:  +6 to all stats

Wrist:  [item]4744en[/item] 

We’ve been buffing up our agility and stamina heavy so far, time to hit up the intellect a little bit. 

Armor:  23 (cloth)
Stamina:  1
Intellect:  8
Enchant:  +24 Attack Power  (Assault)
or +12 Intellect  (Major Intellect)  <— I recommend this one
or +12 Stamina  (Fortitude)  — All good choices, use this enchant slot to help balance where you need points.

Gloves:  [item]6727en[/item] 

This is a quest reward item from Tanaris.  The quest is called Safety First. 

Armor:  70
Agility:  8
Stamina:  9
Enchant:  +15 Agility  (Superior Agility)

Belt:  [item]20090en[/item] 

PVP reward item for running Arathi Basin.

Armor:  61
Stamina:  5
On Equip:  +24 attack power bonus

Leggings:  [item]7414en[/item] of the Eagle

A green item with random enchant.  The stats on this will vary but try to get the 9/9 stat version.  This is another nice boost to intellect.

Armor:  87
Stamina:  9
Intellect:  9
Enchant:  +40 stamina and +12 agility  (Nethercleft Leg Armor)

Boots:  [item]20093en[/item] 

Another PVP reward item.  Not only is this item free and easy to get but it also has great stats and a slight increase to run speed.

Armor:  74
Agility:  8
Stamina:  8
Enchant:  +7 Stamina

Rings:  [item]2933en[/item] or [item]6414en[/item] and [item]19517en[/item] 

The Protector’s Band is a PVP reward item, nuff said.  The Seal is a quest reward item available in either Stormwind City or Undercity.

Seal Stats:
Strength:  3
Agility:  3
Stamina:  4
Intellect:  4
Spirit:  3

Protector’s Stats:
Strength:  6
Agility:  6
Stamina:  4

Trinkets:  PVP Trinket for your Faction and Engineer Trinkets

The PVP trinket is a great trinket to keep you out of polymorphs and fears.  If you want to try to balance trinkets during combat to take full advantage of cooldowns, grab an [item]19024en[/item] trinket as a backup.

The Engineer Trinkets vary from use to use, look up individual trinkets for details but here are a few I’d use.  If you took my advice and get your engineering up to 225, you’ll be able to use all of these:

Iron Grenades
Gnomish Mind Control Cap
Gnomish Harm Prevention Belt
Gnomish Cloaking Device
Goblin Sapper Charge
Goblin Mortar

Weapons:  (Dual Wield)  [item]8226en[/item] and [item]19549en[/item] 

You can really stack on some agility with these to up your crit chance and dodge rating.  The Sentinel’s Blade is a good PVP reward item and easy to get.  The Butcher is a little more difficult but can be found on the AH for a price.

Stats for The Butcher:
Damage:  38-72  (19.6 DPS)
Agility:  5
Stamina:  4
Enchant:  +15 Agility

Stats for Sentinel’s Blade:
Damage:  25-47  (21.2 DPS)
Agility:  7
Stamina:  3
Enchant:  +15 Agility

Ranged Weapon:  [item]17687en[/item]

Great gun and it’s a quest reward!  Run the Big Game Hunter quest line in Stranglethorn Vale to get this beauty.  This is a slow firing weapon with high damage output – great for kiting in bg’s.

Damage:  51-96  (25.3 DPS)
Enchant:  +7 damage scope

Cats are the popular pets for hunters but the best hunter battleground pet is really the boar.  The boar gets the charge ability which is a great snare to start your barrage.  It’s also a handy tool to get to players quickly to interrupt both casters and other twinks trying to bandage.  That reminds me, I usually take it for granted that other twinks know – but you should work on maxing out things like your first aid up to 225 and stock up on runecloth bandages.  This will enable you to do quick, full bandages while you have your target snared. 

You should also spend some time in a lowbie area to increase your defense rating.  To do this you’ll need to aggro low level mobs that really can’t do much to you and just let them hit you for your defense rating to increase.  Getting hit in PVP won’t count towards leveling this so lowbie mobs are the only way.

Until next time – do some pwning for me!